The Marrow of Tradition

The classic, fictionalized account of a white supremacist insurrection in Reconstruction Era North Carolina—with a new introduction by Wiley Cash.

On November 10, 1898, a mob of 400 people rampaged through the streets of Wilmington, North Carolina. In a violent reaction to the political power gained by African Americans during Reconstruction, the mob killed as many as sixty citizens, overthrew elected leaders, and installed a white supremacist government. The Wilmington Insurrection—also known as the Wilmington Race Riots and the Wilmington Massacre—was the only successful coup d’etat on American soil.

The Marrow of Tradition is a fictionalized account of this important yet overlooked event. Charles W. Chesnutt, a North Carolina native and America’s first black professional writer, narrates the story of “Wellington” North Carolina through the eyes of William Miller, a Black doctor, and his wife, Janet, who is both Black and the unclaimed daughter of a prominent white businessman.

With these and dozens of other characters, including a Black domestic servant whose speech is rendered in vernacular dialect, Chesnutt conjures a nuanced portrait of Reconstruction—a turbulent time of historic progress and vicious backlash.